Recommended Infusion Guide
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Infusions
UNIQUE
Velvety Stems
Our antlers come from a varietal growing in a specific field of Satemwa. This was the first field to ever produce Antlers and it has a lovely story.
This is an extract from Infused - Adventures In Tea. By our Rare Tea Lady - Henrietta Lovell.
"Some years ago, working in one field Alex, the farmer, noticed an incredible aroma during plucking. As each two leaves and new bud were snapped from the bush, the sap of the fresh leaf scented the air with ripe stone fruit: apricots and peaches. Try as he might, Alexander couldn’t capture the aromas of the fresh leaf in the finished tea. He tried to make green tea, black tea and oolong tea, and he tried simply drying the leaf as a white tea, but it was no good. There were hints of the fruit aromas in the teas but never a deep flavour.
You can imagine the frustration of identifying one tiny patch of land and one unique varietal that in combination could produce something truly extraordinary and yet not being able to capture it in the tea. Over a decade he experimented with that one field. The answer, however, revealed itself not in the factory but in his kitchen. He was cooking tomatoes, pulling the fruit from the vine, when he suddenly realised where the aroma came from. We buy tomatoes on the vine not just because they look pretty but because they smell better. It is not the fruit of the tomato plant that smells so strongly of tomatoes, it’s the hairy stem. Chefs know this, supermarkets know this, and we are aware perhaps only that we will pay more because somehow vine tomatoes are more 'tomatoey'.
I can’t reveal, nor do I know the exact production method of the Malawi Antlers. But I can tell you that it is a white tea made from the tender growing stem and not the leaf. It is called an Antler because the shape resembles the new horns of a young deer. It is a very specific harvest and years later, in full production, this one field can only produce around sixty kilograms of finished Antlers a year."
INNOVATION
Malawi to Claridge's
Antlers also express the farm's wonderful obsession with quality and innovation. Just like a vineyard, the tea garden produces tea from several fields. We buy our antlers from just one field that is reserved exclusively for Rare Tea.
They taste like no other tea you have ever tried. So extraordinarily good it's served at Claridge's.
Shipping Information
UK Shipping Rates
FREE UK Tracked when you spend £30 or more
FREE UK Express - Next Day* when you spend £60 or more
UK Tracked - Two Day Tracked £3.99
UK Express - Next Day* Tracked £5.49
UK Express - Next Day* Courier from £8.49
USA Shipping Rates
FREE DHL Tracked/DHL Plus Tracked when you spend $30 or more
DHL Tracked/Plus Tracked from £4.99
USPS Priority from £8.99
FedEx Home Delivery from £16.99
Europe Shipping Rates
FREE Europe Tracked when you spend £50 or more
Europe Tracked Delivery from £4.99
Europe Express Courier from £21.99
Canadian Shipping Rates*
FREE DHL International Tracked when you spend $40 CAD or more
DHL International Tracked from £5.99
FedEx Courier Delivery from £34.99
Worldwide Shipping Rates
FREE Worldwide Tracked when you spend £50 or more
Worldwide Tracked Delivery from £5.99
ROW Express Courier from £20.49
IOSS for EU Orders
Rare Tea Company uses IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) for EU orders placed on the website.
How IOSS works and how it is applied on the website.
The IOSS scheme allows us to collect VAT during checkout on your behalf, meaning that no VAT is due when your order is assessed by your local authority.
- If the combined value of the products in your cart are equal to or below €150 (excluding tax), VAT will be included at the point of sale and you should not be charged any fees when your order arrives.*
- Once the €150 threshold is exceeded VAT will be removed from the items in your cart and from this point onwards when your order ships you will be liable for local VAT, duties and import fees.**
To avoid unnecessary import charges, keep your orders under €150 (excluding tax and shipping). Tax is included on all applicable products at Rare Tea - if your order is applicable for IOSS tax will be shown at the checkout.
Valid for IOSS |
Not valid for IOSS |
Your order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails will also confirm whether your order is valid for IOSS.
As with all complex shipping methods, the IOSS system isn't foolproof, and orders that are valid for IOSS are occasionally incorrectly charged VAT by customs.
If an order shipped via IOSS and that you have paid VAT on does get incorrectly assessed by customs, please don't worry. It's usually just a mistake that can be fixed by contacting customs and explaining that the order shipped via IOSS with VAT already paid.
If this does happen to you then we suggest the following:
- Please contact us before speaking to customs.
- We will double check that the order was valid for IOSS.
- We will provide a VAT receipt and a shipping label as evidence.
- Contact your local customs for assistance, using the shipping label as evidence.
- If all else fails we will attempt to get our shipping provider to investigate, but this process can take a while.
*Please note - this does not include any applicable duty charged when the item is cleared. Within the EU tea is free from duty, but your region might have a different rules for non-tea items such as tins and teaware. Any duty charged is payable by you, the customer before delivery via your local customs authority.
**In special cases where custom fees have been unexpected we have retroactively refunded these in select cases. As of the 15th February 2023 (the start of IOSS) we have discontinued this process.
What is IOSS?
The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is the electronic portal businesses can use since 1 July 2021 to comply with their VAT e-commerce obligations on distance sales of imported goods.
Up until the 1st July 2021, no import VAT has to be paid for commercial goods of a value up to EUR 22. New VAT eCommerce rules abolished this provision as of 1st July 2021. Thus, from 1 July 2021, all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory is subject to VAT irrespective of their value.
What is IOSS for?
IOSS allows suppliers and electronic interfaces selling imported goods to buyers in the EU to collect, declare and pay the VAT to the tax authorities, instead of making the buyer pay the VAT at the moment the goods are imported into the EU as it was previously the case (for products over 22 EUR).
What are the advantages of IOSS?
IOSS facilitates the collection, declaration and payment of VAT for sellers making distance sales of imported goods to buyers in the EU. The IOSS also makes the process easier for the buyer, who is only charged at the time of purchase, and therefore does not face any surprise fees when the goods are delivered. If the seller is not registered in the IOSS, the buyer has to pay the VAT and usually a customs clearance fee charged by the transporter.
What countries does IOSS apply to?
IOSS applies to the EU member states of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
It does not apply to the EEA.
How much tax will I get charged?
Tax will be charged at the base VAT rate of the shipping country.
Full details of IOSS can be found on the European Comission website.
Any questions? Please get in touch!
Send us a message using the form below, or call +44 (0) 207 681 0115 (9am - 5pm GMT, Monday - Friday).
